2005 Newsletter - MAA Sections - Mathematical Association of ...

MESSAGE FROM THE SECTION CHAIR
Welcome to another issue of MetroMath!!! Let me begin my message by highlighting a
couple of actions our Section undertook since last year’s May meeting. First, as part of our
efforts to serve mathematics at the secondary level in our Section, we sought to sponsor
junior and senior high school students for the AMC’s (American Mathematics Competitions).
We agreed, at the Delegate Assembly Meeting in October of last year, to sponsor 10 schools
– for up to $100 each – that have never participated or have not participated within the last 5
years. We sent out letters inviting over 700 such schools to respond to our offer (I want to
thank the MAA for providing us with that list)! Unfortunately, only 4 schools responded (less
than a 1% return )!!! Any ideas you may have to attract more interest will be greatly
appreciated! Next was Metro NExT, which is metropolitan New York’s local version of the
MAA’s Project NExT (New Experiences in Teaching). In November, we assembled a panel
for Getting Tenure: Advice from Members of Tenure Committees at LaGuardia Community
College. I want to thank the following individuals who helped make the event a success:
Ray Greenwell (Hofstra University), Dan King (Sarah Lawrence College), Talitha Washington
(The College of New Rochelle), Amy H. Lin (US Military Academy), and a special thanks to
George McCormack for organizing the event at his institution! Please see page 16 for a
summary report from George. As always, we are very receptive to input! Thus, if you have
an ideas for a Metro NExT activity, please let us know (preferably by our next Delegate
Assembly Meeting in September)! Now, on to our annual meeting…
If you have never attended one of our Section meetings, I urge you to make every effort to
attend this year! Our meeting will be held on Saturday, May 7, at York College (CUNY) – the
preliminary schedule is on page 7. I believe our program has something of interest for
everyone in mathematics, from teaching remediation through advanced courses, doing
research, preparing for mathematics competitions, or promoting public awareness! Our
invited speakers are Maria Chudnovsky and Melanie Wood, both from Princeton University.
Dr. Chudnovsky will present The Structure of Clawfree Graphs, while Melanie Wood will
discuss Experiences in Math Competition Training: Student and Teacher. Please see page 8
for brief bios and descriptions of these talks. We also have scheduled two panel discussions,
Promoting Mathematical Awareness: Reports from the Front Line and What you Can Do to
Help the Cause, and Making the Connection with the Developmental Math Student. Please
turn to pages 8 and 9 for information about these panels and the panelists. Something new
this year, as suggested by one of the attendees of our meeting last May, is in addition to our
contributed paper session we will have a poster session. Please consider presenting a paper
or poster, and encourage interested students to do so. See page 7 for the Call for Abstracts.
I am very much looking forward to our May meeting, both as chair of the section and as an
attendee! I am also hopeful of seeing many new faces as well as familiar ones!
Abe Mantell
BTW: Please visit our Section web-page (www.maa.org/metrony) and take a look at the
updated pictures from last year’s meeting!
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